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Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP): "We want to help people in the crisis".
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Actually, the controversial gas levy should apply from Saturday – most recently Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) got into a dispute about the implementation.
Now, for the first time, Lindner has spoken out clearly in favor of introducing a gas price cap.
"Don't open the floodgates"
"The goal is a debt brake for the federal budget and a gas price brake," said Lindner in Berlin.
The FDP boss continued to warn of inflation.
»I can say it quite frankly: If the debt brake were lifted, not only would everything that we need for the crisis be financed, but then general political wishes and projects would also come into play.
And that would be the financial dam break.« That is why he and the FDP stuck to the debt brake.
Lindner said: "We want to help people in the crisis, but we don't want to open the floodgates."
The gas price brake is not yet ready for a verdict.
But there are already consultations within the federal government, said Lindner.
He has "a very precise idea" of the financial policy instruments, but wants to discuss them within the federal government.
He had already expressed himself with similar caution on "Anne Will" on Sunday evening.
The end of the gas surcharge is therefore considered almost certain.
It was actually supposed to support gas importers who have high costs for replacement purchases due to the lack of Russian deliveries.
The surcharge for all gas users is currently set at around 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour of natural gas – making gas more expensive for customers.
Lindner demanded that in view of the impending economic damage, all possibilities had to be used.
This includes the "expansion of capacities such as nuclear energy, the withdrawal of gas that we have, the European measures that are being discussed, for example joint gas purchasing by the European Union and targeted measures by the German state".
Lindner also called for price signals to be set.
If it becomes clear to the market that gas is flowing back into the market from storage facilities filled with public money, this will already have an impact on pricing.
mrc/muk/dpa